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- This country has become an absolute Joke! We are ruled by fast food, the Internet, Cell Phones, & Video Games. While our highest intellectual pursuit is to not miss an episode of American Idol.
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- We don't need to battle obesity... most overweight and 'obese' people who I know are IN BETTER HEALTH than the people who are very thin or underweight for their body size and type.
Same thing for 'battling cigarettes'... it's only the PACK A DAY or MORE smokers who are having the extreme health problems.
Same thing for 'battling alcohol'... it's only the people who take it to excessive drinking who are having problems..... and they are finding out now, some people who problems they think are from drinking heavily so they need a liver transplant..... NOPE! Their livers are fine, it turns out that they got Hepatitis or another disease and THAT'S why their livers started failing. - Reply to this comment
- I agree that healthy food should be less costly than junk food. However, instead of adding a tax to sodas and any other junk food item, why don't we LOWER THE PRICE of the HEALTHY FOOD. Hence, we make it the affordable item and the junk food the unattainable item. The Salad should be on the dollar menu at Mickey D's and the Double cheeseburger should be five dollars! Let's not add more taxes. Let's just fix what is wrong in the first place!
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- As a registered dietitian, I was very glad to see the subject of obesity, especially among children, addressed on the CBS Evening News January 7 in an even-handed, informative way that focused both on possible causes of the obesity epidemic and on possible solutions. And as the 2009-10 President of the American Dietetic Association, I can assure you that ADA and our members are committed to bringing about the changes that are needed to slow and reverse the obesity epidemic and help everyone live healthier lives.
I must comment on a reference to the American Dietetic Association in CBS's story. A page from ADA's Web site was shown as the reporter said: "And even the world's largest nutrition group, the American Dietetic Association, has a list of sponsors that includes the very companies selling unhealthy products." While this statement is factually accurate, it should have been put in context since it implies undue connections between ADA and food corporations. In the same section of our Web site, my predecessor as ADA President, Martin M. Yadrick, describes the goals and purposes of ADA's corporate sponsorship program (information that was not used in the story): ?We think it's important for us to be at the same table with food companies because of the positive influence that we can have on them. For ADA, relationships with outside organizations are not about promoting companies' products; they are about creating nutrition messages that people can understand and act upon to improve their health and that of their families.?
ADA has long been an excellent source for CBS News, proving both reliable and trustworthy food and nutrition information. ADA?s expert spokespeople appear regularly on the network's programs. Elisa Zied, a registered dietitian from New York City, has appeared more than a dozen times on the CBS Early Show, and she is just one example.
For the January 7 story, representatives of ADA spoke with CBS News regarding our many ongoing efforts to prevent obesity and optimize the nation?s health through food and nutrition services. None of this information was used in the story. This is CBS's prerogative, but the fact that ADA offered our expertise needs to be noted.
Our nation has paid a high price for overlooking or ignoring the important role of food and nutrition in improving people's health - a price paid in lives and dollars alike. ADA fully agrees with solutions covered in the story: individuals, groups and communities working together; encouraging people to eat more fruits and vegetables, educating children; and getting kids to engage in more physical activity.
Registered dietitians make a real-world impact in each of these areas, helping keep costs low and providing the foundation for getting and staying well. RDs know what does and doesn't work; we can cut through the clutter of information that is often overwhelming, scattered and inaccurate; and serve as a person's lifeline to eating right.
Right now, as health reform makes its way through Congress and toward President Obama's desk, this country has a unique opportunity to reverse trends, lower costs and help people get and stay healthy. The American Dietetic Association has played a significant part in health reform, and we will continue to do so.
Jessie M. Pavlinac, MS, RD, CSR, LD
President, American Dietetic Association - Reply to this comment
- I am a nurse who fights against childhood obesity through positive healthy messaging for kids. I started a free bilingual website (www.nourishinteractive.com) that provides kids with interactive nutrition tools and games to not only help them learn to make better choices but to help them form positive attitudes toward nutrition.
Isn't that what the junk food companies do? They make eating their junk food so much fun with characters and games and cartoons, all promoting unhealthy eating.
I feel we have to help kids learn at a younger age, before they have formed their habits about the fun of eating healthy and being active.
I know this is not the solution to helping overweight kids lose weight (which is very hard to do) but it is a step in fighting the long term battle against childhood obesity and that is through early nutrition education.
We have to start changing the new generation's mind set about nutrition, market it and promote it as FUN- so kids will want to learn about it. - Reply to this comment
- Genetically Modified Food reason for cancer obesity and allergies.We are first country all three because of them.We are still sleeping we are dying slowly.
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- they should throw all the fat people
into a furnace to power the nation - Reply to this comment
- Good report. It's also important to understand that even if a person is not overweight, he or she may still not be getting the nutrients they need in their diet. In fact, less than 2% of the nation's youth meet their nutritional requirements in this country. So, it's not just if you're overweight that you need to consider your food and activity choices. We do live in a toxic food environment, where junk food and fast food are marketed to children and available at every corner. A two year old can identify "Ronald McDonald" as quickly as "Santa Claus". And, even the seemingly innocuous Sesame Street has as it's major sponsor, Ronald McDonald. As for the American Dietetic Association, the leading nutrition organization, which has wonderful nutritionist on board, as a society, it does have as its major sponsors, Coca Cola, Pepsi Cola, Monsanto, etc. Additionally, they do not even agree with the term "junk food" - they don't want to label foods "good and bad" but rather, see "all foods fitting in a balanced diet". I think it's important to recognize that there are good foods, as in "real foods" and there are junk food products, which are highly processed, packaged, and loaded with fat, sugar and salt and calories. Unfortunately, over 80% of all food ads on TV go for promoting the latter, and especially marketing these to kids. We desperately need regulations on junk food marketing to children, we need more money for nutrition education, we need to keep the arts in schools so that kids (and adults) can develop parts of themselves that bring deep joy and contentment, so that food, drugs, and alcohol don't become the only thing people reach for to get out of bad feelings. My two cents. (I'm a nutritionist working with children's nutrition for over 25 years!)
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- The Freedom and Liberty in the U.S. Constitution to eat what you want is killing Americans.
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- Action Plan to Eliminate Obesity in America:
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Eliminate Televisions and Obesity will decrease by 60%.
Eliminate Video Games and Obesity will decrease by an additional 30% especially in kids.
Eliminate Computers/Laptops and Obesity will decrease by an additional 10%.
A Good Diet alone without Exercise will not reduce Obesity. - Reply to this comment
